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With September callups, Porter looks to evaluate future

With September callups, Porter looks to evaluate future

HOUSTON -- The Astros announced after Saturday night's 3-1 loss to the Mariners that their first two September callups will be right-handed reliever Jorge De Leon and outfielder Trevor Crowe.

Between Double-A Corpus Christi and Triple-A Oklahoma City, De Leon had 3.46 ERA over 67 2/3 innings. Crowe was hitting .306 with three homers and 23 RBIs over 60 games in Triple-A.

With Oklahoma City headed for the playoffs, the Astros didn't want to do take too many players from the RedHawks and hurt their postseason chances.

Astros manager Bo Porter said he doesn't plan to manage differently with an expanded roster, which shouldn't be a surprise considering he has been in evaluation mode all season with the youngest team in baseball. Last year, interim manager Tony DeFrancesco squeezed as much as he could out of every pitching matchup with his expanded roster and wound up going 15-15 in the team's final 30 games.

DeFrancesco, of course, was managing to win as many games as he could so he would be considered for the full-time gig that eventually went to Porter. Winning is still important to Porter, but what happens from here on out is as much about next season as anything.

"If you guys have watched all year, I've tried to do everything I can to put these guys into situations we can evaluate how they're going to respond and how they're going to handle certain situations, and we'll continue to do that throughout the course of the year," Porter said.